The stolen Guertena (we really shouldn't take this one Peter)
by Ornery Otter
Summary: Okay, so I was writing some other stuff for Ib which I've not finished, and I just had a thought about who would go to art exhibits…. And I mean, how could I resist?


Ib x White Collar

"What do you know about an old artist called Weiss Guertena?" Peter asked as he entered the room, dropping a case file on the desk. He smoothed down his tie and sat down in his chair, and only then realised that his convict partner had frozen at the question.

"Neal?" Peter prodded, concerned at the odd reaction.

"Uh, nothing Peter, the Guertena exhibit has never been my area of interest." The younger man replied with a forced disinterest.

"Uh huh, you wanna try that again?" If anything, Neal's abysmal attempt at lying was blaring some warnings through his skull, and Peter leaned back in his chair, surveying his partner.

"Not really?" Neal practically squeaked, and then sighed when Peter just gave him an unimpressed stare. "Aright, alright. All I know is enough to stay the hell away from it, that's what I know. Seriously Peter, drop the case and leave it alone. Anyone who wants to steal a Guertena is welcome it."

"You know that's not how it works Neal." Peter sighed. "Someone stole a couple of pieces from the exhibit, the FBI's been called in to take a look at the case. I can't just say no Neal."

"You really, really can."

"No I can't. You can tell me what's got you so spooked about it though. Seriously, I've not seen you act this flighty before." Neal so rarely admitted that there was something wrong, usually covering it up so smoothly, Peter was honestly concerned by Neal's response.

It was clear that Peter wasn't going to let it go though, nor was he going to drop the case. Neal could swear to keep his distance and stay out of the Guertena case all he wanted, but if he did so he risked Peter walking into it alone, which was arguably worse. Neither option was appealing honestly, but Peter had always been a bulldog when it came to cases – he never let go.

"Look, its just a bad case alright. Guertena's are bad news." The non-answer was a clear evasion and they both knew it, but Peter put his hands up in surrender all the same.

"Never took you to be the superstitious type." Peter cajoled him, but Neal wasn't up for playing games on this one and merely shrugged as he all but bolted from the door.

"This is such a bad idea." Mozzie was as always the master of understatement, and on repeating himself. "Seriously, you've not had such a bad plan in a really long time. I was kinda wondering what the next one would be but really, the ball is right out of the park with this one. You should be ashamed."

"It wasn't my idea Moz." Neal replied shortly, as if he hadn't already explained the situation and said as much several times already. "If I had any choice in this I'd be as far away from a Guertena as possible."

"Then why aren't you! Seriously, there's a nice coffee shop around the corner, you could just skip this one out, pretend you got stuck in traffic or something." The shorter man complained shamelessly, pointing to a quaint little coffee shop on the corner.

"For the same reason you're here probably. I can't leave a friend to go in alone." Neal was unusual serious, even if there was a tight note of tension in his voice.

"Yeah yeah we're all fools for our friends I suppose." Mozzie sighed, and sighed again when Peter caught sight of them coming and gave him a confused and unimpressed look at his being there. "And Feds." He muttered under his breath, as though he'd ever count Peter Burke as a friend in word or implication.

"Come on, let's just get this over with and hope nothing happens." Caffrey said grudgingly.

"I had forgotten…" His voice trailed off and Peter looked at him sharply, wondering at what he'd left unsaid.

The art wasn't anything special truly, nothing that hadn't been done better by someone else, but there was something about Guertena's work that stood out anyway. The exhibit had been around for as long as anyone could remember, and while pieces were occasionally sold off, they always eventually returned to the same pace. People didn't seem to notice anything wrong when new pieces intermittently turned up, perfectly aged and apparently legitimate, depicting people who had gone missing.

Of course it was ludicrous for most to make the connection – it wasn't like Guertena could be painting new ones, he was long dead after all. Even so, it was as though most people weren't able to make the connection between those missing and the new paintings, not even in a 'what a strange coincidence way'. It made him wonder if he was seeing the same thing that they were – it wouldn't be the first time a Guertena piece looked different to other people.

Neal was undeniably on edge though, even after ten minutes of talking with the art owners inside their private collection. His eyes cast around warily though, earning a few odd looks from Peter but little more, and Mozzie was outright inspecting the place, having pulled out a magnifying glass and everything, peering around the room queerly. It would have made him chuckle if he wasn't so on edge.

"Alright, I've got all I can from the owner for now." Peter said as he walked up, putting away his notebook and pen. "Find any clues? The sooner we get this solved, the sooner we can leave." The agent tried to sweet-talk cooperation out of his partner.

"We're not going to find anything Peter." Neal sighed. "Nothing that'll actually point us towards a culprit anyway."

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine." Peter muttered, turning away. "Turns out that the missing paintings are all from the 'Liars' collection. Apparently they were gift from the mother-in-law. Not sure what that's about." Probably nothing good, but the pettiness of the upper class didn't interest him at the moment. He idly wondered if the choice of a Guertena wasn't a threat in and of itself, but doubted that many people realised at all the danger of those pieces.

Peter made them stick around looking for any traces despite Neal's unhappiness with being there, and of course Neal was right about there being little to find – another half hour of searching only revealed some paint splatter near the missing paintings. Neal didn't even seem to pay it much mind, already knowing what the analysis of the paint would say – that the paint was the same as the Guertena paintings themselves, however that was possible. All the same, samples were taken and forensic techs worked around them to dust for prints.

By the time they finally turned to leave, Neal was more than ready to make tracks. He'd been tense the whole time, but it'd gotten progressively worse. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck and he kept checking behind him, till even Peter was considering bailing early just to put an end to it.

Of course, that's when the lights went out.

"Shit." Mozzie, ever eloquent.

"You got that right." Neal sounded far calmer than he felt, backing up towards the others. "Reckon we can make a break for it or is it already too late?"

"Let's try anyway."

"Worth a shot." The pair of them bolted for the exit, not bothering to feign decorum.

They shot down the hallway into the still illuminated foyer, nearly colliding with Peter's back. He turned to them, apparently not having noticed any cause for distress. "Hey, have you seen this? That's some weird sculpture. I coulda sworn it wasn't here when we came in." indeed, the main entrance now housed a large sculpture of a young woman in Death's embrace, and it certainly hadn't been there when they'd come in. "Pretty cool right? I wonder how they got it in the door though…." Peter trailed off, only now noticing the tension in the two men. "What's wrong?"

Looking past him, Neal could already tell that the front door was sealed, not that it mattered. It was three in the afternoon, but the windows all showed pitch black outside, and though the lights were on in here, the place was deserted of the techs and police that should've been cluttering the place up. It was deserted.

They were already trapped.


End file.
